From another thread, the question was raised regarding the best way to print digital B/W images that have been warmed up some. Any suggestions or "rules of thumb" for us?

You can used the Epson ABW driver and its toning options. You have more predictive ability and control over the toning most easily if you print from Lightroom and use the Split Toning panel. Apart from these elementary pointers, this is largely a matter of taste. Experiment and see what looks best and is most easily manageable for you.

Check Paul Roark's PDFs on B&W printing. Most are starting from custom B&W ink sets but at least it gives a good indication which black/grey inks and papers are already warm without any color ink addition. Think about solutions with QTR as the driver and your normal Epson inkset, there are complete setups + B&W profiles included in the package. A warm paper is a start.

in the traditional darkroom tone as often as not came from the paper (at least the non-garish tones).

for my buck there is NO comparison to a piezo print when you want a toned BW, they are drool inducing pretty.

I can't have two printers and need to do color so I do my own prints as tritone or quadtone images that are printed in color. works well for me until I can have a piezo dedicated printer in addition to the ipf.

in the traditional darkroom tone as often as not came from the paper (at least the non-garish tones).

for my buck there is NO comparison to a piezo print when you want a toned BW, they are drool inducing pretty.

I can't have two printers and need to do color so I do my own prints as tritone or quadtone images that are printed in color. works well for me until I can have a piezo dedicated printer in addition to the ipf.

With the Jon Cone inking system you can do both. I just use a simple flush, switch out the inking cartridges and do a quick fafter flush print to ensure the inks are set...Jon's inks are superior to anything else I've used out there in piezo land.

Cone Piezography used to be linearized and partitioned with the expensive and fairly complex rip Studio Print by ErgoSoft. That is still is probably the most precise platform for doing monochrome blends and splits and plenty of people still go that route for highly specialized set ups.

However, these days most of us are using Quad Tone Rip with the K7 inks. I have the K7 Carbon Sepia set up in a 9890 and it is by far the most beautiful, dimensional, and stable warm tone pigment workflow that I've ever seen. The Ardenburg test results done years ago shows this set to be as permanent as anything there is and I use it with the Canson papers that have pigment whiteners. From my drum scans of 100 iso 4x5 film these inks with Jon's custom curves made for QTR really capture everything I can see on the film. Same is true of the dslr work I do with them, nudes, landscapes, portraits and my still life work all look amazing with this many dilutions of gray.

I can use others too like Epson Vivid Magenta set out of Quad Tone Rip, or the Canon 8300 out of True Black and White, or the HPZ as an RGB device out of Lightroom or Photoshop, toned for very nice single hue prints. But it isn't the same as K7. If it were I wouldn't have a new 44" printer sitting over there with only one ink color in it. Is it worth it? It is to me and the people I do work for. I can and have matched the print color with some effort with all three color ink set ups but I can't duplicate that dimensionality of K7, I just can't.

Can anybody suggest a complete workflow set up and run through for QTRip on a Windows system. The description that comes with the s/w has me scratching my head at various stages particularly setting up the curves and linearisation process. The instructions seem to have been pieced together with older versions of s/w with assumptions made etc. I have seen various step by step guides for MacOS but the differences mean I lose the 'plot' along the way. I have an i1pro spectro so can use that with my 3880 for custom profiles and color management, so I am by no means clueless.I appreciate its not expensive by any means and perhaps this sets an expectation of the documentation, but I am sure

I have tried trawling the forums and the yahoo group but really would benefit from a complete step by step (an idiots guide) where I can fully understand the process

I have been thinking of diving into the K7 system, but am not sure about which inkset to consider. With my current toning in either Photoshop or Lightroom I like to do a warm shadow, less warm midtone and approaching a neutral highlight. I like the split tone look as I prefer to have brighter, more brilliant whites.

+1 for the LR split tone panel. The ability to keep highlights clean is a big deal to me and the ability to control "where that starts" as well as the color & saturation of the "tone" is excellent. Papers that work for me to preserve warmth are: Epson Hot Press Natural, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, Harmon Gloss Baryta.

I have been thinking of diving into the K7 system, but am not sure about which inkset to consider. With my current toning in either Photoshop or Lightroom I like to do a warm shadow, less warm midtone and approaching a neutral highlight. I like the split tone look as I prefer to have brighter, more brilliant whites.

Which inkset to choose for something like a 7890 or 9890 printer?

the Special Edition set may be what you are after, or some similar combination. You have to see this stuff for yourself, I'd talk to them and get some samples of the different sets.Tyler

There are a number of good guides for QTR. Check the files section of the QTR Yahoo group. Tom Moore wrote an excellent guide which i windows based. Amadou Diallo's guide is good as is Lou Dina's They may be Mac based, but once you get a basic handle on QTR they all are helpful. There are some other floating around which are also helpful.

I have been thinking of diving into the K7 system, but am not sure about which inkset to consider. With my current toning in either Photoshop or Lightroom I like to do a warm shadow, less warm midtone and approaching a neutral highlight. I like the split tone look as I prefer to have brighter, more brilliant whites.

Which inkset to choose for something like a 7890 or 9890 printer?

Jon Cone will send you a full set of sample inks on different papers. They are a decent size and quite accurate to final output.

With the advent of Bill Atkinson's profiles for the Epson 7600/9600 I simply figured the best approach for my B&W was to print warm tone and be done with it.

The main key is to keep the image in RGB for printing and archiving.

Back in the good old days, I printed on Portriga Rapid paper that I would selenium tone. Going long in the toner, the print would split in color between the quarter tones and three-quarter tones. They worked for my images.

By keeping things in RGB and printing using all the colors of the printer, not only can you print warm-tone, but cools, metals, and more. The possibilities are endless for your b&w toning and with the current versions of printers (manufactured in the past 5-7 years), you can print dead-on neutral, depending upon your paper.

Keep it in RGB and print warm or cool on a recent printer, whatever your heart desires!